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The South in the Building 
of the Nation 

Thirteen Periods of 
United States History 



TWO ADDRESSES 

Delivered at Washington, D. C, and 

New Orleans, La., 



by 



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MISS MILDRED LEWIS RUTHERFORD, 

Historian General U. D. C, 

Athens, Qa. 



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Introduction, 



The United Daughters of the Confederacy are in- 
debted to a member of the New York Chapter, Mrs. 
Henry M. Day, for this booklet, containing the two ad- 
dresses delivered by our Historian General at the Gen- 
eral Conventions held at Washington, D. C, Nov. 1912, 
and at New Orleans, Nov. 1913. 

Mrs. Day, realizing the value that the historical in- 
formation, embraced in these two addresses, would be 
to the youth of the land, handed Miss Rutherford a 
check for the purpose of putting this matter into book- 
let form convenient for use in schools. 

As the books of this first edition are sold, the money 
is to be used to print other copies, so that the good 
work can go on. 

The price is 25 cts. ; postage 5 cts. Orders to be sent 
to MISS M. RUTHERFORD, 

Historian General U. D. C, 

Athens, Ga. 



committee: 

MISS M. RUTHERFORD, Chairman, 
MRS. WALTER D. LAMAR, Macon, Qa. 
MRS. M. M. WELCH, Athens, Qa. 
MRS. S. E. F. ROSE, West Point, Miss. 






stenographer: 

miss cora c. millward, 

washington. d. c. 



The South in the Building 
of the Nation. 



There comes to me a memory — the memory of our Dr. J. 
B. Lamar Curry, and what he said years ago, that history 
as it is now written is most unjust to the South, and his- 
tory, if accepted as it is written, will consign the South to 
infamy. 

Who is responsible for the South's unwritten history? 
Surely we cannot blame the northern historian. His duty 
is and was to record the facts as they are given to him; 
and if we of the South have not given him these facts, how 
can we hold the historian of the North responsible? (Ap- 
plause). The fault we find with the northern historian, 
(of course there are a few exceptions,) is not so much 
what he has said against us as what he has omitted to 
say. (Applause). , . ^ 

Unless we, Daughters of the Confederacy, will look mto 
this matter and see where the trouble lies we will still 
have this history untrue to us. As long as the Book Trust 
controls our Boards of Education and northern text- 
books continue to be used in southern schools to the ex- 
clusion of southern text-books, we will realize that the 
history of the South will never be known to the coming 
generations. (Applause). . 

We cannot in the South compete with the North m pub- 
lishing houses. Therefore, we cannot sell books at as 
small a cost as they can be sold by northern publishers. 
This throws the responsibility upon the moneyed men of 
the South, who have not thought it worth while to spend 
their means in having publishing houses for southern text- 
books so that we can compete in prices with northern text- 
books. We must not blame the manufacturer of books at 
the North because he is pushing his interests in the mat- 
ter of his books. You would do it and I would do it. 

No, Daughters of the Confederacy, too long have we 
been indifferent to this matter. Only within the last 
fifteen or twenty years have we really awakened to the 
fact that our history has not been written. The institu- 
tions of the South, especially the institution of slavery, 
about which clustered a civilization unique in the annals 
of history, have never been justly presented from the 
southern point of view. Thomas Nelson Page, more than 
any other one writer, has thrown side-lights upon this m- 



stitution which have revolutionized the thought of the 
world. And we are so greatly indebted to him! 

Daughters, are the books of Thomas Nelson Page in 
your libraries, especially his "Old South?" Are those 
books given to your children to read? Are your children 
encouraged to read those books? If not, they should be. 
You cannot expect the North, and you cannot expect other 
nations to know by intuition the greatness of the South. 
Ah! how often the vision comes before me of the passing 
years, and I see our inertness and indifference and I see 
more — the future years filled with keen regret and self- 
reproach. 

I am here tonight. Daughters, yes, daughters of Con- 
federate heroes, to plead with you, to urge you to a more 
aggressive and progressive campaign in collecting and pre- 
serving this history. We have now living amongst us 
some who lived during the old plantation days — some who 
can now tell us from their own experiences what that in- 
stitution of slavery was, and what it meant to them and 
to the negroes under their control. In those days we never 
thought of calling them slaves. That is a word that crept 
in with the abolition crusade. They were our people, our 
negroes, part of our very homes. There are men and 
women still living who know these facts and who can give 
them to us, but they are fast passing away, just as are 
the men and women who lived during the War Between the 
States. Are we getting from these men and women the 
facts which only they can give us, or are we indifferent 
and not willing to take time and not willing to take the 
trouble to get this information ? Let me say tonight that 
if we still continue to let the years pass by, without giving 
attention to this subject, the history of this period will 
ever be unwritten. 

Now you say, "What can we do?" What can we do? 
Anything in the world we wish to do. If there is a power 
that is placed in any hands, it is the power that is placed 
in the hands of the southern woman in her home. (Ap- 
plause). That power is great enough to direct legislative 
bodies — and that, too, without demanding the ballot. (Ap- 
plause). As you are, so is your child, and as you think, 
so will your husband think, (Laughter and applause) that 
is, if you are the right kind of mother and wife and hold 
the confidence and love of your husband and children. 
Your children are to be the future leaders of this land. 
Are you training these children yourself or are you rele- 
gating that power to some one else ? Something is rad- 
ically wrong with the education of the present day. We 
are training men and women who are not loyal to the 
truth of history, who are not standing for law and order, 



and who are weak enough to be bought by the Book Trust. 
(Applause). Let us do quickly what we can to right it. 

You may say, "Tell us the qualifications for a U. D. C. 
historian, and we will get to work." 

I would say the first qualification for any historian is 
truthfulness. History is truth, and you must truthfully 
give the facts. Be as careful to give the true history of 
the side against us as to give our own side, then we can 
demand from the northern historian that he shall do the 
same. 

The historian must never be partial — no one-sided view 
of any question is ever history. You realize that in .our 
U. D. C. history there are two sides to many questions. 
Time has not yet settled many of these points. What we 
must do as historians is to carefully record the facts on 
both sides. 

There came to me in the preparation of my volumes of 
history for our work such questions as these: Who was 
the first to propose Memorial Day? There are two sides 
to that question. I may think I know, but my opinion 
should not go down as undisputed history. The evidence 
as held by both parties must be recorded for the future 
historian. So with the question. Who first suggested the 
United Daughters of the Confederacy? The evidence as 
held by both sides must be placed side by side. Where was 
the Last Cabinet Meeting of the Confederacy held ? Three 
States are claiming that honor. Where was the last battle 
of the War Between the States fought? Two places are 
claiming that. You heard today North Carolina and Ala- 
bama claiming the origin of the Confederate flag. There 
may be facts on both sides of these questions which an 
impartial historian can decide in future years better than 
we now can, so I beg you to be careful and don't let us 
think we know it all. 

Then the historian must be very patient. The material 
that we are seeking is scattered far and wide. The vet- 
erans are very slow to glorify themselves, and you must 
tactfully draw from them the things you wish to know. 
Oh, great patience is required on the part of the historian! 

Then you must be bold and fearless, daring to tell the 
truth even if adverse criticism comes to you for doing it. 
But while bold and fearless be tactful, be broad and be 
liberal-minded. 

An historian should have with her the elements of the 
philosopher. It must need be that you are required to deal 
with the social, the economic and the political questions 
of the day, and you must be prepared to discuss them 
without passion. You must learn to hold yourself withm 
yourself in discussing all questions of that kind. 



You must have enthusiasm, also — that enthusiasm which 
will carry all with you; but, here again your enthusiasm 
must be tempered with good will and with fairness. Then 
you must be a patriot — because the Confederate soldier 
was the highest type of a patriot, (Applause) and when 
you are writing of him you must know what patriotism 
means. 

And you must be loyal to truth — not with regard to 
Confederate history only, but loyal to the truth of all 
history. (Applause). 

What is history ? I would say that it is not dates chro- 
nologically arranged, nor is it gossip about politics, nor 
is it descriptions of battles only. All of these things may 
enter into history, but I think history centers around some 
human event, some social movement. And to write his- 
tory one must know human nature. Not only must we 
know the event, but we must know what caused it and all 
the circumstances attending it, and the motives of all the 
people connected with it. 

The field of history is as broad as human life; the qual- 
ities of history should be truth and wisdom; the aim of 
history should be to find the truth; the methods of the 
historian should be to pursue truth and weigh it, then 
publish it after it is weighed. In a word, if you ask me 
"What is history?" I would answer, **It is getting truth." 
The sources of history are oral or written. We have. 
Daughters, an opportunity today to get much of our his- 
tory from oral testimony. Shall we neglect to do the 
thing which in a few years we cannot do? 

Do you know, that the South has had a great part in the 
building of the nation ? If you examine those text-books 
your children are studying you would never think it. 
(Laughter). And from them they will never discover it. 
Our institutions are very often unjustly — I should not have 
said unjustly, for we ourselves have never put them justly 
before the world — but as history stands now it is unjust 
to the institutions of the South. 

Do you know, that in the books your children are study- 
ing and reading the institution of slavery is said to have 
weakened the mental faculties of the men and women of 
the South, making them lazy and inert? (Laughter). 
But history unjustly as it has been written will by the 
lives of these men disprove that very statement. 

Not only were we the first permanent colony that came 
to these shores, but more than that for it is stated upon 
good authority that one of our Jamestown colony was in- 
strumental in inducing the Pilgrim Fathers to come to 
Plymouth Rock, and yet you and your children know all 
about that Plymouth Rock colony, and can answer without 



a moment's hesitation that it was the Mayflower that 
brought over the Pilgrim Fathers to this country, and few 
can give the names of the Good Speed, the Discovery, and 
the Susan Constant, the three vessels that brought the 
members of the Jamestown colony first to these shores. 
(Laughter). 

Why? I will tell you why. The North has thought it 
worth while to preserve its history carefully, and we have 
not thought it worth while to have our history written. In 
other words your children are studying what the North 
says and not what the South should say. 

Do you know, that most of the men who took part — a 
prominent part — in the building of the nation were the 
slaveholders that have been so maligned ? When they were 
looking for a president of the first Continental Congress 
why did they go to Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, a slave- 
holder, to be at the head of that body? (Applause). 
And why, when a resolution had to be drawn that these 
colonies must be free and independent states, did Richard 
Henry Lee, another slaveholder have to write it? (Ap- 
plause). Why was it when they were seeking for some 
one to write the Declaration of Independence, they chose 
Thomas Jefferson, a slaveholder? (Applause). The Brit- 
ish Encyclopaedia, which is so unjust to the South, says it 
was because he was a ready writer. Compliment No. 1 
that this encyclopaedia, found in every Southern library, 
has paid to the South. 

Did not our George Mason of Virginia, give the first 
Declaration of Rights ever passed on this continent? Then 
when they were looking for a commander-in-chief of the 
Army, did they not choose another slaveholder, George 
Washington? (Applause). And when they were looking 
for a commander-in-chief of the Navy, was it not our 
James Nicholson of Virginia? And was it not John Mar- 
shall's pen that welded the states into a union ? And when 
they were looking for men to write a paper stronger than 
the Articles of the Confederation, did not they first choose 
our James Madison to write it — that is our Constitution be- 
fore amended since the war ? And when they needed Chief 
Justices for the government, did not our Marshall of 
Virginia, and Taney of Maryland, for over sixty years hold 
that office ? And wasn't it a southern man that was made 
the first President of the United States? Was it not 
Thomas Jefferson that added the Louisiana Purchase — 
millions of miles of territory — to the United States; and 
was it not James K. Polk of Tennessee, that added the 
Pacific slope ? Did not Virginia give to the United States, 
Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and a part of Minnesota? There 
were 15 Presidents before 1860 and 11 of them were south- 



em men. Five of these were re-elected and every one 
from the South. It cannot be denied that southern men 
were foremost in the War of 1812, and you know it took 
a southern man, Francis Scott Key of Maryland, to write 
our National anthem — The Star Spangled Banner. 

Did it not take two southern men, Taylor and Scott, to 
gain Mexico, and were not the men most prominent in that 
campaign from the South — Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, 
Robert E. Lee, Thomas J. Jackson, our Stonewall, Jos. 
E. Johnston, and A. P. Hill of Virginia, Henry R. Jackson 
and Josiah Tatnall of Georgia, Beauregard of Louisiana, 
Braxton Bragg of North Carolina, Butler and May of 
Maryland, and others too numerous to mention? Was it 
not James Monroe who bought Florida for the U. S., and 
it has been his Monroe Doctrine, abuse it as you may now, 
that has kept our America for Americans so long. And 
was not Sam Houston the hero of Texas, and was it not 
Meriwether Lewis of Virginia, and William Clarke of 
Kentucky, who opened up the Yellowstone and the great 
West? (Applause). 

No, we do not begin to know what part the South had 
in the building of the nation — not only in one direction but 
in many. 

Let us turn to the inventors. Was it not our Cyrus Mc- 
Cormick of Virginia that invented the reaping machine 
which revolutionized harvesting? 

Was it not our James Catling of North Carolina that 
invented the gatling gun? Was it not our Francis Gould- 
ing of Georgia that invented the sewing machine? But 
history don't tell you so. (Laughter). It says Howe and 
Thirmonnier did it. Was it not our William Longstreet 
of Georgia that first suggested the application of steam as 
a motive power? History will not tell you that either, but 
will say that Fulton did it. Was it not Watkins of Georgia 
who invented the cotton gin? You never heard of him 
before, did you? History tells you Ely Whitney in- 
vented the cotton gin. The first passenger railroad in the 
world was in South Carolina, and the first steamboat 
that ever crossed the Atlantic ocean went from Savannah, 
Georgia. You don't find that in northern histories, do you ? 
Wasn't Paul Morphey the greatest chess player in the 
world? (Laughter). And wasn't Sidney Lanier the finest 
flute player ever known ? Cyrus Field could not have made 
his cable a possibility without our Matthew Maury to de- 
vise the plans. There never was an ornithologist like our 
Audubon of Louisiana. And I do not believe they could 
have tunnelled under the Hudson without our William Mc- 
Adoo of Marietta, Ga. (Laughter). Then, again, when 
they wanted a leader of the Union forces in 1861 why did 



they go to our Robert E. Lee? And when he refused, did 
they not choose Winfield Scott, another southern man? 

Then when we come to science and medicine, what 
physician has done more to alleviate the sufferings of the 
world than our Dr. Crawford W. Long of Georgia? (Ap- 
plause). He was without doubt the discoverer of anes- 
thesia, and I dont' believe you know all that means to you, 
or you would have applauded louder, and you would not 
allow others to try to take the honor from him, and you 
would have erected a monument to him long ago. Was 
it not our Sims of South Carolina who first suggested sur- 
gery in hospital service. 

Then let us come to the question of education. If there 
is a thing that the South has smarted under in the false 
Vv^ay that history has been written, it is in regard to illit- 
eracy in the South, and I want to open your eyes a little 
bit along this line, and you of the South need an opening 
of the eyes as well as the people of the North. We do not 
ourselves know all that the South may claim. 

Do you know, that William and Mary College at Wil- 
liamsburg, Va., was the first university in the United 
Stales? Now, mind you, I did not say college, for I have 
no desire to take from Harvard her glory. And did you 
knew that William and Mary was the first to receive a 
charter from the crown; the first to have a school of mod- 
ern languages; the first to have a school of history; the 
first to use the honor system ? And do you know, that the 
Georgia University, Athens, Ga., was the first State Uni- 
versity in the U. S. ? Besides this, do you know that the 
Wesleyan College at Macon, Ga., was the first chartered 
college for women in the world, and that it was a Geor- 
gia woman who received the first diploma ever issued? 

Do you know, that in 1673 Mosely of North Carolina, 
was establishing public libraries in his state, and Byrd of 
Westover as early as 1676 gave 39 free libraries in his 
state, Virginia — a veritable Carnegie, and had no strings 
tied to them, either. (Laughter and applause). Why, 
South Carolina was having free schools as early as 1710, 
iind I think Virginia had them before this. What nonsense 
to say that the South was behind the North in literary 
taste and culture in the days of the South of Yesterday! 
The first book written in America was in Virginia, and the 
first book printed in America was in Virginia. The li- 
braries in the Old South contained the best books then 
published, and the best magazines in this country and in 
England were on the library tables. And as to the matter 
of illiteracy, since the War, just let me put this thought 
in your mind. It was Savannah, Ga., in the World's 



Almanac of 1910 or 1911, I forget which that was said to 
have had the lowest percent of illiteracy in the U. S., and 
remember, too, that Georgia's population is about half 
negroes. 

Again, you cannot put a two cent stamp on a letter that 
a southern man and a slaveholder, George Washington, 
does not speak to you; and you cannot handle our silver 
currency that another southern man and a slaveholder, 
Thomas Jetferson, does not speak. 

No, we do not ourselves know our own greatness, and 
how can we expect others to know it? If time permitted 
I could go, on and on, giving one thing after another that 
would astound you; but this much I will say, that no sec- 
tion of the land can show greater statesmen, abler jurists, 
braver soldiers, purer patriots, more eminent men of let- 
ters, more skilled physicians and inventors, truer and 
holier divines, finer orators, and more men who have been 
foremost in all departments of life than our own South. 
(Applause). And the time has fully come, and all sections 
of the country seem to have realized that the time has 
come, for the South to come into her own. (Applause). 
Thank God that Gov. Woodrow Wilson has been elected 
President of the United States (Applause) — a man who 
stands for all that the South stands for; a man who is 
above being bought; a man who will be equally just to the 
North as to the South. (Applause). And we of the South 
must stand back of him and show implicit confidence in all 
that he does and says. We must be slow to join in any 
adverse criticism, and let him know that we believe that 
he is going to do the very best thing in the very best way. 
(Applause). Georgia feels very proud that for the first 
time in history the Lady of the White House will be a 
Georgia daughter. (Applause). 

Now, just as the Confederate soldier returned after the 
war and became a peaceful citizen, because he was a hero, 
and could rise above the humiliation of surrender, and 
from a hero of war become a hero of peace, so should we, 
daughters of these Confederate soldiers, emulate their ex- . 
ample. The Confederate soldier fought with honor, sur- 
rendered with honor, and abided the issue with honor. 
After the war he came back into the Union equal with all 
Union men. He is as loyal to the flag today as other 
Union men. It is true, he had to fight his way with shack- 
led hands during that awful reconstruction period; but 
wise men of the North understand w^hy it was a necessity 
then. He was compelled to establish the political suprem- 
acy of the white man in the South. (Applause). So, too, 
the Ku Klux Klan was a necessity at that time, and there 

10 



can come no reproach to the men of the South for resort- 
ing to that expedient. 

Loyalty to the flag was shown by the South in the 
Spanish-American War. More soldiers in proportion to 
the population went from southern states than from north- 
ern states. And was not our Joe Wheeler of Alabama *'the 
backbone cf the Santiago campaign?" And was it not 
said of our Hobson of Alabama that he performed the 
most wonderful feat ever performed in naval history? 
And did not Willard of Maryland plant the first flag in 
Cuba? And was it not Tom Brumby of Georgia that 
raised the first flag at Manilla? And did not Anderson of 
Virginia fire the first salute at El Caney? And so in 
many ways other southern heroes have shown their loyalty 
to the flag. 

But, does loyalty to the flag that floats above us prevent 
our loyatly to the Confederate flag? Not at all. That is 
the emblem of the South's patriotism. Four years it 
waved its precious folds above a righteous cause, and when 
we furled it, it was because we were overpowered and not 
because we were conquered. (Applause). Silently and 
reverently we laid that flag away, that our children and 
children's children coming after us might revere it; it 
will teach to them the principles for which our fathers 
fought — states' rights and constitutional liberty. 

Every Confederate State had a share in the War Be- 
tween the States. Some states suffered more than others. 
Dear old Virginia was the battle ground. Ah! how Vir- 
ginia suffered. Over five hundred battles were fought on 
Virginia's soil. But I believe North Carolina holds the 
palm when it comes to sacrifice. (Applause). One-fourth 
of all the Confederate soldiers that were killed during the 
War Between the States were North Carolinians; one- 
fourth of all who were wounded were North Carolinians; 
one-third of all that died from disease were North Caro- 
linians; and that ?.6th Regiment of North Carolina sus- 
tained the heaviest loss ever sustained by any regirnent 
during the war on either side. Eight hundred fell in Pick- 
ett's charge, either killed or wounded, and only eighty 
were left to tell the tale. This shows how the old North 
State stands for bravery. 

You would think from this, wouldn't you, that I am a 
North Carolinian? I am not, but a Georgian. (Applause). 
I am Georgia born and Georgia bred, of parents Georgia 
born and bred — Georgian from the crown of my head to 
the soles of my feet, and loyal enough to old Georgia to 
wear tonight a velvet dress woven on a Georgia loom at 
Griffin. (Applause). But Georgia has so many things of 

n 



which to boast she can well afford to be magnanimous to 
other states. 

The War Between the States was a war of secession and 
coercion. It really came about by a different interpreta- 
tion of the Constitution. The South interpreted it to 
mean State sovereignty. The thirteen states ratified that 
constitution. Why was it ratified by them at that time if 
they were unwilling to abide by it in later years? (Ap- 
plause). 

A very significant thing happened last year. The son 
of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Charles E. Stowe, gave a talk 
before the Fiske University at Nashville, Tenn., the largest 
college for negroes in the South, in which he said: "It is 
evident that there was a rebellion, but the North were the 
rebels, not the South. (Applause). The South stood for 
state rights and slavery, both of which were distinctly en- 
trenched within the constitution." And we have had no 
harsher critic of the South than Prof. Goldwin Smith, and 
he said that you cannot accuse the southern leaders of 
being rebels for "secession is not rebellion." 

For seventy-three years the South stood back of this 
constitution to protect her rights and those rights were 
protected; but when Abraham Lincoln was elected on an 
anti-slavery platform, without an electoral vote from the 
South, war was inevitable. We felt that if one state's 
right was interfered with, other states' rights would be. 
I have heard even some southern people say that the war 
was fought to keep our slaves. What gross ignorance! 
Only one-third of the men in the Confederate army ever 
owned a slave. Gen. Lee freed his slaves before the war 
began and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant did not free his until 
the war ended. 

In 1860 there were 40 millions of people in the United 
States — 31 millions being north of Mason's and Dixon's 
line. Nine millions only were in the South, and four mil- 
lions of these were our negroes. That left five millions of 
people including young children and old men and women 
from which our army of 600,000 had to be chosen. The 
North had an army of nearly 2,800,000. Gen. Buell, a 
general on the other side, said, "It took a naval fleet and 
15,000 men to advance upon 100 Confederates at Fort 
Henry. It took 60,000 men to whip 40,000 at Shiloh, and 
it took only 60,000 Confederates to drive back with heavy 
loss 115,000 at Fredericksburg, Va." (Applause). 

Yes, there was a great disparity in number, but the 
make-up of our army was the very flower of Southern 
manhood; those men fought! Never in the annals of 
history has been recorded such devotion to duty and prin- 
ciples as was found in the southern soldier. 

12 



We were not then a manufacturing people, we were an 
agricultural people. This cannot be said about us now. 
So the home supplies soon gave out, and our soldiers did 
suffer sorely. 

Half-clad, they went through storm and sleet, through 
shot and shell. 

Half-shod, they marched 'through thorn and thistle and, 
bare-foot, scaled the mountain heights to meet the ad- 
vancing foe. 

Half -fed, on half rations they went without complaint 
and cheerfully shared their little with others in the de- 
vastated regions. 

No, you will never find anything like the record of the 
Confederate soldiers. They surrendered when forced to 
surrender like heroes. Can we blame them when they 
wept like children? 

They came back to the old South to readjust the old 
South to the new order of things. They do not acknowl- 
edge there is a new South. Henry Grady w^as a very young 
man when he went to Boston and spoke of "the new 
South." He did not know how the people of the old South 
would feel about that. There is no new South. The South 
of to-day is the South of yesterday remade to fit the new 
order of things. And the men of today and the women 
of to-day are adjusting themselves to the old South re- 
made. 

But the time has come now when the men and women of 
the South can sit down quietly and discuss with the men 
and women of the North the War Between the States, and 
have no bitterness in their hearts. We could not have 
done this a few years ago. It only goes to prove how our 
people are becoming a reunited people. Our sons are 
marrying northern daughters; our daughters are marry- 
ing northern sons; our sons are entering the army and 
navy and standing side by side with the boys from the 
North. 

Conventions, as the D. A. R., the Colonial Dames, the 
Woman's Federation of Clubs, and religious convocations 
are bringing us closer together, so that we are beginning 
to know each other and love one the other. 

I think the Spanish-American War did more than any 
other one thing to make us understand each other. The 
soldiers of the North camped in the southern states. 
Two regiments of Pennsylvania troops were stationed in 
our town, Athens, Ga. They began to understand condi- 
tions with us in Georgia, and knew better how to sympa- 
thize with us in solving those problems so perplexing to 
us in the South. We met those soldiers, many of the 

13 



officers were invited to our homes, and so we learned to 
know them. 

Then, too, such a speech as President Taft made to us 
on Tuesday night will tend greatly to make us a reunited 
people. (Applause). Ah! how that touched our hearts. 
We can never forget it. (Applause). We may forget 
many things that this Convention may bring forth, but 
his words will linger long in our memory. Again, words 
from such men as Corporal Tanner will bind us close to- 
gether — men who are brave enough and true enough to 
their own side, and to their own principles, and yet broad 
enough and true enough to see our side, too. (Applause). 

And, so the day is fast coming, a day of peace. God 
grant that peace may soon reign in all hearts, so that we 
may be a nation known as a God-fearing people; a people 
that will stand for temperance — that temperance that will 
not harm our brother man; a people that will stand for 
purity — that purity that will make for pure manhood and 
womanhood; a people that will stand for honesty — that 
honesty of conviction and principle that will dare to do 
the right thing and the just thing. May we stand before 
all nations as the greatest people on the earth — a people 
that knowing right will dare to do right. 

And when I urge upon you, Daughters of the Confed- 
eracy, to write the truth of history and to teach it to your 
children, it is with no desire to arouse in your hearts and 
minds nor in their hearts and minds any animosity or bit- 
terness, but that all may intelligently comprehend the 
pi'inciples for which our fathers fought. Teach your 
children to resent their being called rebels and traitors, 
and let them know that our fathers fought so valiantly in 
order that they might preserve constitutional liberty. 
(Applause). We will never be condemned for being Con- 
federates, but the whole world has a right to condemn us, 
if we are disloyal to truth and to our native land. (Pro- 
longed applause). 



It 



Thirteen Periods of United States 
History. 

THE SOUTH'S PART IN MAKING HISTORY. 

Last year at Washington, you remember, your Historian- 
General sounded a very sad note; this year she is able to 
sound a far more cheerful one. Twenty-one of twenty- 
two State Divisions have reported systematic work along 
historical lines; six, of the eleven States having no Di- 
visions, have also reported progress; and some individual 
chapters have sent most valuable contributions recording 
Southern events. 

This advance has been a great encouragement, and it 
has made me feel that if such advance continues in the 
same proportion each year, it will not be long before the 
South shall be placed where she rightly belongs in the 
annals of history. 

I bring you this evening sixteen volumes, averaging 400 
pages each, which I have prepared for you in scrap book 
form. These bound volumes are not for publication, but 
are compiled for the convenience of the future historian. 
I desire, after indexing them, to be permitted to place 
them in our Confederate Museum at Richmond, Va., so 
that there shall be no excuse hereafter that the truth con- 
cerning the South is not available. 

As State Historian of Georgia, I have twenty-six sim- 
ilar volumes pertaining to Georgia history; as the his- 
torian of my own chapter I have eleven volumes concern- 
ing Athens history. 

Do you not see the possibilities in our work? Each 
State Historian has the opportunity of compiling her own 
State history; each Chapter Historian, her own local his- 
tory, putting it into scrap-book form, binding it, indexing 
it, and having it ready when it is needed. 

I had hoped to bring you this evening twenty volumes 
instead of sixteen, but four of these volumes could not be 
completed because you failed to do your duty. 

Our President-General urged you to send the history of 
your State Division — only eleven States responded, so that 
volume is incomplete. I urged you in my Open Letter to 
send inform^ation regarding the disputed points connected 
with our Confederate history; also your State's part in 
the making of our history, and the names of our great 
men of the South in Science, Art and Invention from your 

15 



State. Very few responded to these requests, so the three 
other volumes consequently remain unfinished. 

Now, Daughters of the Confederacy, while it is true that 
we are making- an advance in collecting and preserving 
this history, are we really doing all that we can do ? Have 
we in the past done all that could have been done? I 
answer without hesitation, I do not think so. 

We are far too prone to believe that the history of the 
South is included in the four years of the War between the 
States and the seven years of Reconstruction which fol- 
lowed. While this is undoubtedly the pivot upon which our 
Southern history does turn, we should not neglect to know 
and to teach the events which led to this period, and the 
results which have followed. 

To my mind there are thirteen well-defined eras or 
periods of United States history. In eight of these eras 
the South has been pre-eminent; in four the North has 
been pre-eminent; in one we have shared the honors. 

I wish very much that time would permit me this evening 
to take period by period and show you just what right- 
fully belongs to the South. As it is, I shall only have time 
to give you a glimpse of the many good things that we 
may claim. 

May I suggest that the Chapters take these Thirteen 
Periods for their Historical Programs next year, using 
these instead of a Year Book? If this is done the next 
Convention will report marvellous progress in a knowledge 
of Southern history. The amount expended in Year Books 
can then be given to our Arlington and Shiloh monuments, 
and greatly facilitate those objects. 

While the Mason and Dixon Line was drawn to settle a 
dispute between the states of Pennsylvania and Maryland 
regarding their boundary, I shall use that line to separate 
the colonies and states of the North from those of the 
South. 

One hundred years or more had passed since Columbus 
discovered America, when Queen Elizabeth, realizing that 
Spain was not only gaining great wealth by her posses- 
sions in America, but that she was also planting a religion 
that was not Protestant, granted to Sir Walter Raleigh, 
one of her favorites, permission to organize a company for 
the purpose of establishing settlements in the New World 
in England's name. This settlement was called for the 
Virgin Queen, Virginia. It extended from "the northern 
boundary of Florida on the South, to the St. Lawrence 
River including the Great Lakes on the North, and from 
the Atlantic Ocean on the East to the Great Sea on the 
West." So you see that every colony, at the time of the 
War of Independence, had practically been settled on Vir- 

16 



gmia's soil. Eight of these colonies were in the NortVi 
and only five were in the South. Those in the North in- 
cluded m area 164,000 square miles, while those in the 
South included 824,000, five times the extent of territory. 

Let us now begin with the Early Colonial Period, the 
first of our history. 

Not only was the Jamestown colony in Virginia the first 
permanent English colony in America, but it was the first 
to have an Assembly, a written Constitution, a trial by 
jury, an endowed college, a school house, a school for In- 
dians, a missionary to the Indians. First to have a preach- 
er, to build a church, to have a marriage ceremony, a 
baptism, a Thanksgiving Day (1609), a hospital, a 
physician, an orphan asylum. First to Christianize the 
negro, to stand for liberty of conscience, to stand for re- 
ligious freedom, to demand the right to will one's prop- 
erty, to have a library, to have a free library, to have a 
circulating library, to have free schools, to have a colonial 
currency, to write a book, to have a Sunday School, to have 
a hymn book, to have a court house, to have a post office. 
First to have a tavern, to have an iron furnace, to plant 
cotton, rice, indigo, potatoes, and grapes, to discover the 
love-apple now our tomato, to build a ship, to build a 
Masonic Temple, to make bricks, to leave a legacy to the 
poor — yes, first in many things I have not time to mention. 

"Whitaker's Good Newes" was the first book ever writ- 
ten on America's soil, although it had to be printed in 
England. Edwin Sandys wrote the first book ever printed 
in America, although it was printed on a New England 
press. Dryden said Sandys was ''the best versifier of his 
age," and Alexander Pope gave him high praise. Wil- 
liam Strachey in 1609 wrote his "Shipwreck at Sea," 
which suggested to William Shakespeare his great play, 
"The Tempest." The first Literary Society in the United 
States was at Charleston in 1748 and it is in existence 
today. 

John Smith, of the Jamestown colony, not only discover- 
ed New England and Plymouth but named them, and 
advised the Pilgrim Fathers to come to them! There 
were eleven plantations or burgesses in Virginia with 
negroes on them, and a population of more than 4,000 
people before the Mayflower ever sailed for America. So 
we must not believe that everything good and great in 
those early days originated in the Plymouth Rock col- 
ony, as history represents it. We have in the South the 
oldest city in the United States, St. Augustine, and James- 
town you know was "The Cradle of the Republic." 

Had it not been for the victory at Bloody Marsh in 1742 
there would have been no colonies to declare their inde- 

17 



pendence. The Spaniards in Florida had fully determined 
to take possession of all the land claimed by the English 
from the boundary of Florida to the St. Lawrence River, 
and this they could easily have done. Oglethorpe with his 
brave 682 Georgians and two poorly equipped ships met 
5,000 Spaniards, well-disciplined and well-equipped, with 
56 ships well-provisioned at Bloody Marsh on St. Simon's 
Island, not far from Frederica, and trailed, for the first 
time on America's soil, the Spanish flag in the dust. 

George Whitfield said "That victory was like one of the 
Bible victories where God fought the battle for His peo- 
ple." But for this battle there would probably have been 
no Bunker Hill, no Saratoga, no Cowpens, no King's 
Mountain, no Yorktown, and Spain would be ruling where 
America rules today. New York acknowledged this, 
Pennsylvania acknowledged it, so did New Jersey and the 
other colonies and wrote to Oglethorpe testifying their 
indebtedness to Georgia for the victory he had achieved. 

Surely the South may claim to be pre-eminent in this 
the first period of our history! 

Turning now to tha second or Later Colonial Peric-d. 
It had ever been a principle with the British government 
that those governing only could levy taxes. It was with 
this understanding that all of the colonies were settled. 
When England, contrary to this agreement, began her 
acts of oppression, such as the Importation Acts, Navi- 
gation Acts, acts forbidding the colonies to trade with the 
West Indies or even among themselves, the colonies began 
to show a spirit of resistance. But this resistance began 
with no thought of separation from the mother country, 
and this thought came only when they were denied a voice 
in the levying of their taxes. As far back as 1659 Gov. 
Fendall of P^Iaryland, outraged by the arbitrary acts of the 
Lords Proprietors at a meeting held at Robert Slye's 
house declared Maryland a Republic. Culpepper, of North 
Carolina, appointed Court.s cf Justice and imprisoned the 
president of this colony 100 years before the Declaration, 
[n 1719 South Carolina dismissed her Lords Proprietors 
and chose her ov\^n governor. You well remember Nathan- 
iel Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia, and North Carolina's 
trouble with her governor, and Georgia's arrest of hers. 

But the ''Child of Independence" was really born in 
1735 when Charles Pinckney in the South Carolina As- 
sembly said, "South Carolina has as much right to make 
her laws and levy her taxes as England." You were not 
taught that in history, were you? Your children are not 
being taught it now. I was taught, and so were you, that 
the "Child of Independence" was born twenty-six years 

18 



later when James Otis, of Massachusetts, protested against 
the "Writs of Assistance." 

In 1764 when Lord Grenville, the Prime Minister of 
England, announced in Parliament that the American col- 
onies must be taxed by an act of Parliament, not by- 
colonial act, in order to defray the war debt incurred by 
the French and Indian wars, there arose a war cry — 
"Taxation without representation." 

The Stamp Act Convention in New York followed. South 
Carolina sent Christopher Gadsden to represent her. When 
he said, "British lawmakers have no right to make laws 
for the colonies," Massachusetts publicly rebuked him for 
his "intemperate speech." Soon after this those brave 
North Carolinians seized a vessel and confiscated all the 
stamps she had on board. 

The celebrated Tea Party then took place. By the way, 
history as it is now written, makes so much of this tea- 
party at Boston with its disguised men to throw the tea 
overboard, and says little of that one at Charleston when 
the tea was thrown overboard in broad daylight by men 
with no disguises, and the one at Annapolis, Md., about the 
same time and the tea openly thrown into the sea. 

Jonathan Bryan, of Savannah, called a meeting in 1769 
to protest against the Stamp Act, and Gov. Wright dis- 
missed him from the Council. The Boston Port Bill fol- 
lowed. Who issued the Non-Importation Act, refusing to 
trade v/ith England or the West Indies until Boston was 
relieved? John Hanson of Maryland. Who came in 
loving sympathy to aid Massachusetts? The Southern 
colonies. Washington said, "I will equip, if need be, a 
regiment of soldiers, at my own expense to relieve poor 
Massachusetts." Georgia said, "I will send her 600 bar- 
rels of rice and the equivalent of $720 to aid her." North 
Carolina said, "I will send an equivalent of $10,000 to her," 
and South Carolina said, "I will also send her rice and 
money." George Mason wrote to his daughters in Vir- 
ginia that when the services were held to pray for the 
relief of Massachusetts, they must go to those services in 
deep mourning. Patrick Henry said, "An insult to 
Massachusetts is an insult to Virginia!" 

The ball of the Revolution really started, for this was 
the first public act of defiance, when Patrick Henry made 
that speech in the House of Burgesses in Virginia in 1774, 
when he said, "Caesar had his Brutus, Charles I. had his 

Cromwell, and George III. " The cry arose, "Treason, 

treason!" Pausing for a moment he added, "may well 
profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most 
of it." That ball continued to roll and gained in impetus 
until his memorable speech in the St. John Church at 

19 



Richmond, beginning with, "We must fight if we would be 
free," and ending with those memorable words, "but as 
for me, give me liberty or give me death." Those words 
"liberty or death" became the battle cry of the Revolution. 

Following closely came the Mecklenburg Declaration in 
North Carolina, May, 1775. Then in June of the same 
year South Carolina declared for independence, and in 
July following the Liberty Boys of Savannah, Georgia, 
called a Congress and practically annulled the objection- 
able acts of Parliament, questioned the supremacy of the 
y British crown, and advocated statehood. They erected a 
liberty pole, the first in the South. 

But the boldest act was when in September, 1775, the 
Council of Safety of South Carolina, at Fort Johnson, 
tore down the British flag and raised the flag of South 
Carolina — a blue flag with a white crescent in the corner 
bearing the word "Liberty." When the Virginia Assembly 
met, Pendleton, I forget his first name, Edmund, I think. 
Wrote a set of resolutions and, because he was presiding, 
asked Thomas Nelson to read them. The resolutions were 
to the effect that a delegate be appointed to go instructed 
to present at the Second Continental Congress a set of res- 
olutions that the colonies be declared free and independent 
states. Richard Henry Lee was this delegate. Thus it 
was a Southern man offered the resolutions for freedom, 
(Lee); a Southern man was appointed to give the Sum- 
mary of Rights to answer Lord North, (Jefferson). A 
Southern man was made chairman of the committee of 
Correspondence, (Dabney Carr) — remember, we had no 
railroads nor telegraph wires in those days — a Southern 
man organized the first troops for American independence 
(Hanson, of Maryland), a Southern man was made com- 
mander-in-chief of the army, (Washington), commander- 
in-chief of the Navy, (James Nicholson), three Southern 
men were appointed to arm the colonies, and nothing 
could have been done had not another Southern man, 
(George Mason, of Virginia) given his Declaration of 
Rights. 

So can any one dare say that the South was not pre- 
eminent in this the second period of our history? 

The colonies would have declared for freedom earlier 
had not the French and Indian^ Wars kept their thoughts 
at home. But even in those Lidian wars, who w^as the hero 
of Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Vincennes? George Rogers 
Clark, of Kentucky, and but for Clark and his brave men 
all of that Northwest Territory would now be a part of 
Canada. Who were the heroes of Council Bluff? Lewis 
and Clark. Who were the heroes of Point Pleasant? 
Selby and Lewis. Who was the hero of Duquesne and 

20 



Great Meadows? George Washington. And did not 
Burgoyne say his men feared above everything the rifle- 
men of Daniel Morgan of the Shenandoah? 

Now let us see the South's part in the War for Inde- 
pendence, the third period of our history. 

We are too apt to think that this began with Jefferson's 
Declaration of Independence, but remember that the bat- 
tles of Alamance, Lexington, Ticonderroga, Crown Point, 
Bunker Hill, Quebec, Moore's Bridge and Charleston, were 
all fought before July 4, 1776. Again, why do we find in 
history so much said of those 19 patriots at Lexington, 
and scarcely a word of those 200 patriots at Alamance? 
When Clinton went to South Carolina, why did he fail to 
seize Sullivan's Island? Ask William Thompson of South 
Carolina. Who refused to surrender Charleston to Gen. 
Prevost? Ask Col. Moultrie. Who was the hero of Fort 
Moultrie ? Sergeant Jasper. Who was the hero of Moore's 
Creek Bridge? Richard Caswell. Who of Ramsour's 
Mill? Col. Moore. 

Then for two and a half years, it is true, the war was 
fought on Northern soil, but Virginia troops were in every 
battle, our Washington was the leader after Bunker Hill, 
and Georgia sent the first schooner against the British, 
and Joseph Habersham, of Georgia, seized all the powder 
in the magazine at Savannah, besides 14,000 pounds cap- 
tured from a British ship, and sent it to be used at the 
Battle of Bunker Hill. North Carolina sent the powder 
that was used at Boston! Who was the hero of Trenton, 
Princeton, and Monmouth? George Washington. Who 
was the hero of Saratoga? Daniel Morgan of the Shen- 
andoah. Who was promoted for bravery at the siege of 
Savannah? Samuel Davis, of Georgia, the father of our 
Jeft'erson Davis. Who were the heroes of Kettle Creek? 
Elijah Clarke and Dooly of Georgia, and Pickens of South 
Carolina. V/ho was the hero of Hanging Rock? Thomas 
Sumter of South Carolina. Who were the heroes of King's 
Mountain? Campbell of North Carolina, Sevier and Selby 
of the Wautauga Settlement. Thomas Jefferson said that 
was the decisive battle of the Revolution. Who v^^as the 
hero of Blackstock's Ford ? Thomas Sumter of South Car- 
olina. Who were the heroes of Cowpens? Morgan and 
William Washington of South Carolina. Cornwallis lost 
one-third of his army at this battle. Who was the hero of 
Yorktown? Thomas Nelson of Virginia. Who was the 
Swamp Fox of the Revolution? Francis Marion of South 
Carolina. Who was the Game Cock of the Revolution? 
Thomas Sumter. Who were those Partisan Leaders that 
did such valiant service for Carolina and drove Lord Raw- 
don from Charleston? Marion, Sumter, Pickens, and Lee. 

21 



While the Americans had no regular navy, there were 
heroes on the sea, nevertheless. Who gained the victory 
over the Serapis if not John Paul Jones of North Carolina,, 
and, finally, to whom did Cornwallis surrender? To ous- 
Washington. Five-eighths of the men who fought in the 
Revolution were from Southern colonies, and nearly every 
leader of renown was from the South. 

George Bancroft, a Northen historian, said, ''South Car- 
olina endured more, suffered more, and achieved more than 
any of the other colonies," and Reed of Massachusetts, 
testified that it was the gallantry of Southern men that 
inspired the whole army. 

This brings us to the fourth period of our history — 
The Period of Adjustment. 

When the surrender took place, Cornwallis sent to 
Washington his sword, and Washington received it. As 
the soldiers marched away Washington said to his men, 
•'Let there be no loud huzzahs, no loud acclaims, posterity 
will huzzah for us." Such was the magnanimity shown by 
our great commander. Does this not recall to us that 
General Grant acted with equal magnanimity to our Gen. 
Lee and his barefoot Confederate braves, except there was 
no sword incident. Gen. Lee never offered his sword to 
Gen. Grant, nor did Gen. Grant demand it. 

The army gathered around Washington and offered him 
a crown. "No," he said, "my home is my throne, my 
crown shall be the love of my people," and he devoted his 
energies to adjust the new states to their new form of 
government. 

When the colonies renounced their allegiance to the 
English crown, who presided over that Continental Con- 
gress to welcome Washington in 1781 after the surrender? 
John Hanson, of Maryland. A committee had been ap- 
pointed just after the Declaration of Independence in 
1776 to prepare Articles of Confederation by which they 
could be governed until a more stable form of government 
could be established. I have never been able to find who 
wrote these Articles of Confederation. There is nothing 
strong in them, for they allowed money to be borrowed 
to carry on war but made no provision to pay it back. 
They allowed an army to be called, but provided no way 
to equip it. They would not allow any taxes to be levied. 
They allowed treaties to be made without provision to 
bind the nation to keep them. 

The States realized their weakness and refused to sign 
them at first. A Convention was called later, in 1777, to 
discuss them. Henry Laurens, of South Carolina, was 
made President. The States did not adopt them until 
1779, and then under protest. When the Treaty of Paris 

22 



was signed, 1783, giving peace to the colonies, that Treaty- 
made each colony an independent and sovereign State, 
not a nation, so no State felt there was anything binding 
in those Articles to force payment of the war debt. 

Alexander Hamilton, "The Financier of the Revolution," 
advised with Washington as to the propriety of calling a 
Convention at Annapolis to revise the Articles of Con- 
federation. Only five States sent representatives and not 
one was from the South. Then Washington advised that 
a Convention be held at Philadelphia, and he urged all 
States to send delegates. Twelve States were represented. 
Washington was asked to preside, James Madison was 
made Secretary, and but for Madison, v/e would not today 
have any record of that Constitutional Convention of 1787. 
It was found im.possible to revise the Articles of Confed- 
eration, so it was proposed to form a National Govern- 
ment with executive, judicial and legislative departments. 
Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, said "Leave out the word 
National." Charles Pinckney, of South Carolina, (a 
nephew of Charles Pinckney, of 1735), said, "We must 
have a head," and he suggested that the head be called 
President. Then he also proposed that Congress be di- 
vided into the House of Representatives and a Senate. 
When it came to the question as to who should vote, Mary- 
land, Rhode Island and the smaller States objected to a 
vote by population on the score that too much power would 
thus be given the larger States, especially Virginia. Vir- 
ginia, magnanimous then as she ever has been magnani- 
mous, yielded without a question her claim to all of that 
North West Territory from which were made the States 
of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and a part 
of Minnesota. Then when the question of the vote of the 
slave-holder came, it was a Northern delegate, I think 
from Connecticut, who proposed that the slave-holder 
should have three votes for every five slaves. Thus 
slavery became distinctly entrenched within the U. S. 
Constitution, and that too at the suggestion of the North. 
James Madison was the one who wrote the Constitution. 
Gladstone said it was the greatest State paper ever writ- 
ten. When it was first presented for adoption, Patrick 
Henry said, "Who said, 'We the people?' It should be 
'We the States,' " and so insistent was he that State Sov- 
ereignty should be stressed, that ten amendments became 
necessary before he would consent for Virginia to sign it. 
North Carolina waited a year before she signed it, and 
Rhode Island waited two years. There was never a doubt 
in Massachusetts' mind that the Constitution gave the 
right to a State to secede, if her rights were ever interfered 
with. Many times she threatened to secede and no other 

23 



State ever questioned her right to do it. Even Daniel 
Webster, that great statesman of the North, so interpreted 
the Constitution to mean State Sovereignty. 

When the question arose of paying the war debt, South 
Carolina and Georgia paid more than their share and more 
than any other State unless Massachusetts be excepted. 

Do you not think then that the South was pre-eminent 
in this period? 

May I not pause here for a moment to make a state- 
ment which I think is just? While I am lauding Southern 
men and the part they played in the making of the Na- 
tion, I would not have you believe that I wish to overlook 
the great work done by the great men of the North, foi 
there were great men at the North. We can never as a 
people forget the debt the country owes to Samuel Adams. 
John Hancock, Robert Morris, Washington's friend who 
really financed the Revolution from his own persona' 
means, nor John Jay, Rufus King, John Adams, Alexandei 
Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, Israel Putnam, -James Law- 
rence, Stephen Decatur, and many others, including 
Lafayette and our other foreign friends. But there is no 
danger that these men ever will be forgotten, for their 
deeds have been and will be always well recorded in his- 
tory. What I am so earnestly stressing tonight are the 
unrecorded deeds of unrecorded heroes. The North is right 
to place before her young people the heroism, the forti- 
tude, and the valor of the great men of the North, and so 
should we of the South, place before our young people the 
heroism, the fortitude and the valor of the men of the 
South. 

Thomas Nelson Page says, "We are becoming more and 
more one people and the day is not far distant when there 
will be no South to demand a history." Are you willing 
to allow history as it is now written to go down to pos- 
terity? I am not. It represents our forefathers of the 
Revolution as "breeders of tyrants," "fomentors of trea- 
son," "defenders of slavery." It represents our Confed- 
erate fathers as "indolent, vain, haughty," "semi-bar- 
barious, only saved by Northern civilization, illiterate, 
cruel slave drivers who strove to disrupt the Union in 
order to preserve the institution of slavery." That "se- 
cession was heresy, unconstitutional, untenable, and 
treasonable." It says also that our fathers of today are 
"annulling the Constitution, falsifying the ballot, and 
trampling under foot a weaker race because of race prej- 
udice." It says "President Davis, Alexander Stephens, 
Howell Cobb, Robert Toombs and other rebels should have 
been hanged as traitors at the close of the Civil War." 

It has been a surprise to me that a people so proud of its 



ancestry, so assertive of its rights, so jealous of its repu- 
tation should be so indifferent to the preservation of its 
history. 

Do you wonder that I urged so strenuously this morning 
at our business meeting that we have a Chair of Southern 
History in the Teachers' College at Nashville, Tenn., en- 
dowed by the U. D. C. ? 

Ah! how I wish I could make you, Daughters of the 
Confederacy, realize the importance of having our South- 
ern teachers taught the truth of Southern history. Here 
in our midst Southern young men and Southern young 
women are teaching in Southern schools the things unjust 
to the South, and do not know it. Why? Because they 
were taught from Northern text-books and they think it 
must be right, and they are still using Northern text- 
books. How can we expect the writers of Northern text- 
books to know what we do not know ourselves? No, 
Daughters, it is full time for the teachers of the South 
to realize this injustice to the South. 

You ask, "Why put that Chair of History in Tennessee?" 
Because Tennessee has the only Teachers' College in the 
South, and George Peabody who endowed it was a Mary- 
lander — only English by adoption. 

I hope the day is not far distant when there shall be in 
every university and college in our Southland such chairs 
endowed by the states and named as memorials for the 
great men of the South, and men of the South who really 
know Southern history placed in charge of them. How I 
should rejoice to see such a chair at our State University 
in Georgia and named for an honored graduate, Crawford 
W. Long, the discoverer of anaesthesia, the greatest boon 
poor suffering humanity has ever known. And Georgia is 
going to have it some day. 

Daughters of Florida, you should do the same for your 
Dr. Gorrie who taught us to manufacture ice. What a 
boon that has been in the sick-room and the hospital ser- 



vice 



But I must hasten. We come now to the fifth period of 
our history, The Constitutional Period. 

I tried to show you at Washington last year how large a 
part Southern men had in the "Building of the Nation," 
so I will not repeat. Much concerning that period will be 
found in that published Washington Address. 

It was under the administrations of Washington, Jeffer- 
son, Monroe, Polk and Taylor that that vast extent of ter- 
ritory, 2,100,000 square miles, two-thirds of the entire 
area of our country, was added to the United States. In- 
deed no very large territory was added under any other 
administration, unless we except Alaska, and that was 

25 



added under a "so-called" Southern President, Andrew- 
Johnson of Tennessee. But for these wise statesmen, 
France, Mexico, Spain and Russia would have firm foot- 
hold in our America today. 

There was only one "Era of Good Feeling," and that was 
in Monroe's administration. There was only one Monroe 
Doctrine and that came from a Virginia son. It has been 
the most dominant political question of more than a cen- 
tury. Europe has stood before it perplexed and baffled. 

It was during Southern men's administrations that the 
cotton gin was invented and patented by a Southern man, 
Joseph Watkins, of Georgia; the steamboat became a pos- 
sibility from the brain of a Southern man, James Rumsey, 
of Maryland, or William Longstreet, of Georgia; the pas- 
senger railroad propelled by steam became a possibility 
in a Southern State, South Carolina; the reaping machine 
by a talented Southern man, revolutionizing harvesting, 
Cyrus McCormick, of Virginia; the civil service reform 
which was first suggested by a Southern v/oman, Miss 
Perkins of South Carolina; and the sewing machine which 
was first invented by a Southern man and used by a 
Southern woman, Francis Goulding, used by his wife. 
The Smithsonian Institution was given to the United States 
by England under a Southern man's administration (Polk). 

John Tyler of Virginia held the first Peace Conference. 
The American Navy was born under Jefferson's adminis- 
tration. It was Washington's far-sightedness that kept 
America from being involved in the French Revolution. 

My! how many things we can claim for our dear old 
misrepresented Southland. 

The following are all Southern men. Do you know from 
what States? 

The Father of his Country, Washington? 

The Father of the Constitution, Madison ? 

The Father of the Declaration, Jefferson? 

The Father of States Rights, Patrick Henry ? 

The Bayard of the Revolution, Henry Laurens? 

The Great Expounder of the Constitution, John Mar- 
shall? 

The Supreme Political Thinker of the Age, George Ma- 



son 



The Cincinnatus of Mt. Vernon, Washington? 

The Great Pacificator, Henry Clay? 

The Great Nullifier, John C. Calhoun? 

The Pathfinder of the Ocean, Matthew Maury? 

Fiske, a Northern historian and so unjust in many ways 
to the South, says that the five men who shaped the Amer- 
ican Nation were Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Mar- 
shall and Hamilton — four from the South. 

26 



This brings us now to the sixth period, The Second War 
of Revolution, or the War of 1812. 

Have you ever seen a true history of this period? I 
have not. The North did not want war>with England, es- 
pecially the New England States. Why? Because there 
was at that time in Massachusetts a spy from England 
arranging for the annexation of the New England States 
to England. You know, of course, that Massachusetts 
threatened to secede if war with England should be de- 
clared? No one knows what took place at that Hartford 
Convention, for the proceedings were kept secret, but it 
was well understood that the New England States wished 
to secede. It was Henry Clay that saw the danger. Not 
that he thought that those States had not the right to se- 
cede, but he did not wish to see the Union destroyed, and 
he felt that war must be declared to prevent any future 
interference with American seamen. William Lov/ndes, of 
South Carolina, said, "Massachusetts must remember that 
injury to her commerce is also injury to the South's agri- 
culture." It was necessary that war be declared before 
the New England States could secede. Fortunately Henry, 
the spy, turned traitor, and those states had nothing to do 
but to aid in carrying on the war, although the government 
had to compel their militia to serve in their country's de- 
fense. 

James Madison was the President at this time; Henry 
Clay was the Speaker of the House; John C. Calhoun of 
South Carolina, a member of Congress; William H. Craw- 
ford of Georgia, Secretary of War; George Campbell of 
Tennessee, Secretary of the Treasury; and Felix Grundy 
of Tennessee, a member of Congress. It was Langdon 
Cheves of South Carolina, who offered a resolution to in- 
crease the navy by forty-five frigates and tv/enty-five 
ships of the line. The United States navy had only 16 
ships, England had 830. It was John C. Calhoun who 
offered the resolution declaring war. James Madison was 
inclined to veto the bill, but Henry Clay said that it would 
lose him all chance for renomination by the South, so he 
signed it. Henry Clay was asked to be the commander- 
in-chief of the army, but Congress said he could not be 
spared as Speaker of the House. Harrison of Virginia, 
was put over the forces in the Northwest; Hampton, the 
grandfather of our Confederate Wade Hampton, over the 
forces in the North; Andrew Jackson in the South. Every 
one of the six frigates afterwards so well known in the 
War of 1812, among them the Constitution, Wasp, and 
Hornet, were built at Norfolk, Va., and built of Georgia 
wood! 

Rogers of Maryland fired the first shot from the Presi- 

27 



dent into the Little Belt. Maryland suffered most because 
her coast was so exposed, but she has the honor of giving- 
to our nation its National Anthem, "Star Spangled Ban- 
ner," written at this period by her son, Francis Scott Key, 

Andrew Jackson was the hero of the Battle of New Or- 
leans, the greatest victory over the British on American 
soil. 

The histories you studied and the ones you are now 
allowing your children to study will tell you that nothing 
was achieved by the Treaty of Ghent which brought 
peace. Indeed, one history will tell you "The War of In- 
dependence was directed by a Higher Power, but the War 
of 1812 was an exhibition of unwarranted folly. It was 
brought on by the political ambition of such men as John 
C. Calhoun and Henry Clay, and the country at large has 
had to suffer for the personal ambition of these two polit- 
ical demagogues." 

What ignorance! That war was just as necessary to 
secure freedom at sea from England's rule as the War of 
Independence was to gain freedom on land, and it effect- 
ually secured not only this freedom from British inter- 
ference, but from interference by all other nations at sea. 
There can be no doubt that it increased respect abroad 
for the United States as a Nation, and greatly strength- 
ened the national spirit at home. It sounded the death 
knell of the Federal party. 

Who were the heroes of Fort Meigs, Fort Stephenson, 
The Battles of York and the Thames and Lundy's Lane, 
but Harrison, Groghan, Johnson and Scott? Who led 
that famous "Cockade" in 1812? Richard McRae of Vir- 
ginia. See that monument at Petersburg, Va. 

When the war began the British Navy was singing 
"Britannia Rules the Waves," but when the war ended 
American seamen were singing, "Hail, Columbia, Happy 
Land." 

Was not the South pre-eminent in this period ? 

The War With Mexico is the seventh period of our his- 
tory. 

Have you ever asked yourself the question, "Why so 
many of the men who fought in the Mexican War were 
from the South?" It is officially stated that two-thirds 
were. A Southern man was in the White House, the two 
leaders were Southern men, and the heroes of nearly every 
battle were from the South. The South has been misun- 
derstood and therefore misrepresented by the historians 
of this period of history. 

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 left the negroes con- 
gested in the Southern States, for after Missouri was ad- 
mitted as a State there could be no slaves above a certain 

28 



degree of latitude. Now there were many men in the 
South very anxious for the gradual emancipation of the 
slaves, for we were beginning to realize that under the 
institution of slavery the negro was the free man and the 
slaveholder was the slave. There were many who did not 
believe in slavery, but having inherited this property did 
not know how best to get rid of it. They realized what it 
has taken the North fifty years to learn, that it would 
never do to free them in the midst of an Anglo-Saxon race 
born to rule. Abraham Lincoln realized it, for he was try- 
ing in every way up to the time of his death to arrange 
for the colonization of the negro in Central America or 
Liberia. Edmund Randolph realized what it would mean. 
He wanted to free his slaves, but he said, "We have a 
wolf by the ear, to let him loose is dangerous, to hold him 
is equally dangerous." 

Thirty-two times the Virginia Legislature tried to abol- 
ish the slave trade. Massachusetts was the first State to 
legislate in favor of it, and Georgia was the first State 
to legislate against it. There were 130 abolition societies 
in the U. S. before 1850, and 106 were in the South. We 
had 5,175 members and the North only had 1,162. 

By this War with Mexico the men of the South hoped 
for an extension of territory so as to make the gradual 
emancipation of slaves a possibility. 

Santa Anna had acknowledged the independence of 
Texas, but Mexico refused to acknowledge it, so when 
Texas was admitted as one of the United States, war was 
declared. 

The independence of Texas had been gained just as the 
independence of the colonies, by right of arms. Can we 
ever forget those heroes of that conflict between Texas and 
Mexico? Moore, Houston, Fannin, Bowie, Crockett, Aus- 
tin, Travis, Bonham, and many others equally as brave. 
Can we ever forget our heroes of that War with Mexico? 

Who was so highly commended for engineering skill, but 
our beloved Robert E. Lee? Who was the hero of Buena 
Vista? Our Jefferson Davis. Can you not hear him now 
as he said, "Come, Mississippians; cowards to the rear, 
brave men to the front?" and those brave^ sons of Mis- 
sissippi aided by equally brave Kentuckians 'followed their 
leader to victory. Who won Brazeto and Sacramento and 
captured Chihuahua? William Doniphan, "The Patrick 
Henry of Kentucky." Who was the hero of Chepultepec? 
Thomas Jackson, our Stonewall. Who were the heroes of 
Palo Alto, Matamoras, Resaca de la Palma? All South- 
ern men. 

Who planted the U. S. flag in the City of Mexico ? Quit- 
man of Mississippi. Who first scaled the ramparts of 

29 



Montery ? Rodegers of Alabama. And was not Daniel Hill 
of South Carolina called the bravest soldier of that war? 
And who wrote ''The Bivouac of the Dead," which im- 
mortalized these heroes? Theodore O'Hara of Kentucky, 

Yes, Southern arms surely deserve the renown of that 
victory. 

We are now brought to the eighth period of our history. 
The South on the Defensive, or The Abolition Crusade. 

I said that the South was pre-eminent in the last period, 
but was she allowed to reap the reward of her victory? 
Not at all. Seward and other Northen politicians gathered 
in Convention at Pittsburg, Pa., and arranged to so legis- 
late that no slaves should be in this newly acquired terri- 
tory. This naturally made the South indignant, for she 
resented the many acts of injustice that had been shown 
to her. She had been unjustly treated in the Tariff Acts 
of 1830 when Hayne and Calhoun of South Carolina boldly 
contended for her rights. Hayne said, "It is unconstitu- 
tional for a government to make laws to enrich one section 
and impoverish another," and he was right. The hiding 
of runaway slaves, and believing their representations of 
plantation life rather than the representations of the 
Christian men of the South caused increased resentment. 
Thirty thousand of our negroes, the property of the plant- 
ers, had been encouraged to run away and hidden from 
their owners by means of the so-called "Underground 
Railways" at the North, and sent across the line to Canada. 

As in family life, a child is punished if disobedient, so 
in plantation life a disobedient and unruly negro had to be 
punished. Discipline had to be maintained on the planta- 
tion as in the home. Now it was more agreeable for that 
negro to run away and cross the border line where he 
knew he would be protected than to receive his just pun- 
ishment. And it was perfectly natural for this kind of 
negro to exaggerate his threatened punishment. He told 
the abolitionists that we yoked them to plows to cultivate 
our fields, and the abolitionist willing to believe this did 
so, not realizing that the negro was our salable property 
and that a $60 mule would be much cheaper for his work 
than a $1200 negro. He said that we used dogs to tear 
their flesh when we used bloodhounds to track the run- 
away. H an overseer, and these overseers were rarely 
Southern men, whipped a negro cruelly, as did sometimes 
happen on the large plantations, but not oftener than 
parents sometimes whip cruelly a child, that overseer was 
at once dismissed. Had no other reason than a selfish 
reason prevailed, a slaveholder could not afford to have his 
property injured by brutal treatment. 

Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was 

30 



founded on one of these cruel misrepresentations by a 
negro from a Mississippi plantation. Mrs. Stowe, of 
course, really believed it to be true. But that book did 
more than any other one thing to bring on the War be- 
tween the States. The South felt powerless to «tem the 
tide of popular belief at the North, so fanatical did these 
political abolitionists become. 

A Georgia lawyer, Thos. R. R. Cobb, brought out about 
this time a book, 'The Law of Slavery," which really is a 
most remarkable production. Every available authority 
upon the subject of slavery among all nations was care- 
fully studied and quoted. Coming about the time of 
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" it was suppressed in the North, and 
the war coming on prevented a second edition in the South. 
When William Lloyd Garrison heard that this book proved 
that the institution of slavery was defended by the Bible, 
he said, "Better then destroy the Bible," showing to what 
length his fanaticism led him. Fourteen Northern States 
passed "Personal Liberty Bills" and were violating the 
Fugitive Slave Law which was included in Henry Clay's 
Omnibus Bill. The South feeling that this Omnibus Bill 
was unjust to her, accepted it, hoping to bring peace, 
when these same Northern States, violating the law, urged 
the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United 
States, and he was elected without a single electoral vote 
from the South, the Southern States felt no right would 
be respected and it was full time to secede. 

Yes, the North was pre-eminent in this period of our 
history. 

The ninth period is The War Between the States. 

Eleven States rapidly seceded and the Confederate gov- 
ernment was formed at Montgomery, Ala. The blockade 
came almost with secession. Had the South found a 
market for her cotton and tobacco possibly the surrender 
would never have taken place. Or had the prisoners been 
exchanged as President Davis and Gen. Howell Cobb so 
strenuously urged. Gen. Lee would not have been obliged 
to surrender. Of one thing I am assured the horrors of 
Andersonville Prison could have been averted. 

Do you ask would it have been better had the South 
been victorious? I must say No, God knew best. Far 
better to have a Nation as we now have with such a man 
as Woodrow Wilson at the head, supported by those strong 
Democratic leaders from North and South, wisely domg 
the things which stand for right, than to be Sovereign 
States, as we would have been, the prey of any petty re- 
public which desired to interfere with us. 

The war did not begin with the firing on Fort Sumter. 
It began when Lincoln ordered 2,400 men and 285 guns 

31 



to the defense of Sumter. The surrender was not due to 
Federal victories, but to Confederate exhaustion. . The 
Confederate forces were 1 to 5. One hundred and seventy- 
five thousand men surrendered to 1,050,000. The North 
lost as many men at the battles of Wilderness and Spotsyl- 
vania as were lost in the French and Indian wars, the 
Revolution, the War of 1812 and the Mexican War com- 
bined. 

Yes, the North came out pre-eminent in this period of 
our history. 

You know this history better probably than you do any 
other, so I shall rapidly pass to the next, which is the 
eleventh — The Humiliated South or The Reconstruction 
Period. 

After the surrender the soldiers returned to their homes, 
where homes remained, oppressed and depressed. They 
literally had nothing left but the ground upon which they 
stood. Families scattered, negroes freed, banks closed, 
no currency available. The slaveholder knowing less than 
his overseer and slaves about the practical part of farm- 
ing. The lawyer had no clients, the teacher had no pupils, 
the merchant had no credit, the doctor had no drugs. Ah! 
it was pitiful! Georgia and South Carolina suffered most 
on account of the desolation caused by Sherman's March to 
the Sea. 

This was the time when those women of the Confeder- 
acy showed of what stuff they were made. They put their 
loving arms about those husbands and sons and they said 
"We are not conquered, we are just overpowered, and we 
think it was better that you fought, even if you did not 
win, thaH never to have fought at all. The South is going 
to come out all right, you wait and see." What prophets 
they were, for is not the South today the Nation's greatest 
asset? 

They began to collect the bodies of the Confederate 
soldiers scattered over the battle fields, placing them 
where they could care for them, and where they could 
deck those graves with flowers. Then they began to erect 
monuments over them. The men said, *'We cannot help 
you, for we are under an oath of allegiance." The women 
said, "We are under no oath," and the work went on. 
Ben Butler, in Louisiana, said we should not build monu- 
ments to our Confederate dead, and so said Meade, in 
Georgia, but we did it anyway, didn't we? They did not 
know Southern women. More monuments stand to the 
Confederate soldier today than to any other soldier of any 
other nation who ever fought for any cause. 

Had not Lincoln been assassinated, all would have gone 
well even then, for the negroes still loved their old own- 

32 



ers, and did not wish to leave them. Indeed they were like 
little children, they did not know how to make a living 
for themselves, and they did know that "ole marster" 
would never let them suffer. Lincoln's death was the 
worst blow that could have befallen the South. Lincoln 
was not such a great negro lover as has been represented 
in history. He was Southern born and knew the true re- 
lation between the owner and his slaves. It is true he did 
not believe in slavery, neither did Washington, nor Jef- 
ferson, nor Mason, nor many other leading men of the 
South. Stonewall Jackson never owned but two slaves 
in his life and they begged him to buy them. But Lincoln 
was an intense Union man, and he determined to preserve 
the Union at all hazards. If he could do it with slavery, 
all right; if not, slavery must go. His Emancipation 
Proclamation did not free the negroes as a race. It freed 
your father's slaves, and my father's slaves, but it did not 
free Gen. Grant's slaves, nor the slaves in Missouri, Mary- 
land, Kentucky, Delaware, and other States where slaves 
still remained after the War. This Proclamation, the 
result of a rash vow, was only a measure to punish the se- 
ceding States. He had said in his Inaugural Address the 
South need not fear his interference with their slaves. 
The slaves were not really freed until a Southern man, 
John Henderson of Missouri, proposed the 13th amendment 
to the Constitution after Lincoln's death. But had Abra- 
ham Lincoln lived, he would never have stood for that 
Reconstruction measure of Thad Stevens. We would never 
have been put under military rule and divided into Dis- 
tricts; we would never have had the Freedman's Bureau 
to humiliate us; he would never have stood for social 
equality in the South, he knew the thought of the people 
too well; we would not have had that rule of the carpet- 
bagger and scalawag in the South, and I am perfectly 
sure he would never have stood for that Exodus Order of 
Thad Stevens's, which more than any other one thing is 
responsible for the present day negro problem. That Order 
tore more children from their parents than was ever done 
in all the years of slavery by any slave block. 

Thad Stevens saw that the negroes were remaining with 
their old owners and he could not accomplish the plans 
laid for social equality of the negro in the South. He told 
them if they remained with their former owners they 
would be made slaves again, and ordered that no two 
families could remain upon the same plantation.^ This 
caused a separation of families and a rending of ties and 
a fearful alienation between whites and blacks followed. 
The faithful mammies would not leave "marster's white 
chile," and that is the reason so many were found many 

33 



years after freedom still with their former owners. 

Oh! Daughters of the Confederacy, members of our 
Indiana Chapters, there was a friend of the South from 
your Indiana in those awful Reconstruction days. As our 
Mr. Cunningham has been instrumental in erecting a me- 
morial to Mr. Owens who was so good to our prisoners 
during the War, so I would like to see you erect some 
memorial to that Democratic Congressman so anxious to 
help the South in this hour of her need. I refer to Dan 
Vorhees, of Indiana. He said it was a shame to make 
dead provinces out of living States. He said the South 
was a white man's country and should be kept so, but that 
Reconstruction Committee would not listen to his pleading. 

The Ku Klux Klan was an absolute necessity in the 
South at this time. This Order was not composed of the 
"riff raff" as has been represented in history, but of the 
very flower of Southern manhood. The chivalry of the 
South demanded protection for the women and children of 
the South. 

Yes, the North was pre-eminent in this period of our 
history, but does not the South stand out in no uncertain 
light ? It has proven to the world that she can be as brave 
in defeat as in victory; she can stand humiliation and law- 
lessness with Christian resignation; she can bear and for- 
bear, and yet suffer in silence; and while having far more 
to forgive and forget, she has a heart ever ready to do the 
things that make for peace, and stands ready today to 
stretch forth her hand in the true spirit of reconciliation. 

The record of the Confederate soldier, the heroism of the 
Confederate women, the monuments erected to Southern 
valor have caused the whole world to be lost in admira- 
tion and wonder. 

Now comes The Second Period of Adjustment. 

It was very hard for our Southern men unused to man- 
ual labor of any kind to try to adjust themselves to the 
new order of things in the South. It really was easier 
for the women than for the men, and some men never did 
get adjusted, and some women have never been recon- 
structed. 

The kitchens in the old civilization were never in the 
house, but some distance from it. There was no need that 
they should be in the house then, for there were plenty of 
young negroes to run back and forth with the hot waffles, 
the hot egg bread, the biscuits and the battercakes. But 
when the women of the South had to go into the kitchen 
after the negroes left, or had become too impertinent to 
be allowed around the house, the inconveniences were 
greatly felt. You must remember there was rarely such 
a thing as a cooking stove before the War. All cooking 

34 



had to he done in an open fireplace, with oven and pots. 
There were no water works, and all water had to be 
drawn from the well or brought from the spring. There 
were no electric lights, no gas lights, no kerosene lamps 
even, and lard lamps were really a rarity used only by the 
rich. The dependence for light were wax, tallow and sperm 
candles. The wood had to be cut and the chips had to be 
picked up, and all this consumed time and required great 
patience. This was the beginning of the breaking up of 
home life in the South and it proved the death blow to the 
old time Southern hospitality. Things began to brighten, 
however, as the years rolled by, for the new homes in the 
South began to add the kitchen to the house and conven- 
iences were gradually introduced, so that with gas stoves, 
electric plates and fireless cookers our Southern women 
are as independent today as the women of the North, and 
can cook as good a meal with as little trouble, and wash 
and iron too, if need be. They really have more sympathy 
and more patience with the negro help than the women of 
the North, and really are more anxious to aid the negroes 
in the right way. 

The Twelfth period is The Industrial South or The South 
Coming to Her Own. 

We had been an agricultural people before the War be- 
tween the States, and were satisfied to be. We never real* 
ized the possibilities in our grasp. We did not know that 
we had 9,000,000 horse power in our streams of the South. 
We did not know that we could make anything worth while 
out of the cotton seed we were yearly throwing away. We 
did not know that there was untold wealth lying beneath 
our feet, but we know it now. South Carolina first began 
to realize the possibilities in her cotton mills. She discov- 
ered that she was selling her cotton crop every year to 
Massachusetts for $30,000,000, and Massachusetts was 
making it into cloth and thread and selling it for $100,- 
000,000. The thought came, "Why may I not keep that 
money in my own State?" and that is what South Carolina 
is doing today, and other Southern States are following 
her example. 

I think the Spanish-American War did much to make 
the South realize her own powers. At least it made the 
two sections know each other better. That war taught us 
loyalty to the United States flag, which we had not loved 
during those four years of war, and during those seven 
years of Reconstruction which followed. But when our 
boys put on that uniform of blue, and fought under the 
Stars and Stripes side by side with the boys of the North 
W3 began to feel it was our flag as much as it was the flag 
of the North. The South showed that she was again loyal 

35 



to the Union, for more volunteers from Southern States, 
in proportion to population, went to that war than from 
any of the Northern States, and our boys made themselves 
known, too. 

Who was commander-in-chief of the Atlantic Squadron ? 
Winfield Scott Schley. Who was made Minister to Ha- 
vana? Fitzhugh Lee. Who was called "The Wizard of 
the Saddle?" Joe Wheeler. Who commanded the Brook- 
lyn when Cervera's fleet was destroyed? Schley. What 
vessel fired the first shot of the war? The "Nashville," 
c mmanded by Maynard of Tennessee. Who fired the first 
shot at Manilla? Stoakley Morgan of Arkansas. Who 
was promoted for gallantry on the field? Micah Jenkins 
of South Carolina, Who shed the first blood of the war? 
John B. Gibbs of Virginia. Who was the first to fall in 
battle? Worth Bagley of North Carolina. Who was 
Dewey's right-hand man ? Tom Brumby of Georgia. Who 
was the hero of Santiago Bay? Winfield S. Schley. Who 
was the backbone of the Santiago campaign ? Joe Wheel- 
er. Who sank the ships to block the enemy and saved the 
day? Hobson of Alabama. Who raised the flag at Ma- 
nilla? Brumby of Georgia. Who was sent with a mes- 
sage to Garcia? Rowan of Virginia. Who was sent to 
count the ships in Santiago Bay? Victor Blue of South 
Carolina. Every one our Southern boys. Then who was 
put in command of the American troops in the Phillip- 
pines ? Ewell S. Otis. Who was made Governor of the 
Phillippines ? Luke Wright of Memphis. And does this 
not show our boys of the South equalled in courage and 
heroism the boys of the North? 

Who shall say then, that we did not share the honors 
during' this period of our history ? 

And now we come to the thirteenth and last period of 
our history — The Triumphant South. 

Do you know that three-fourths of all the cotton in the 
world is raised in the South? Do you know that Europe 
pays the South annually $600,000,0(30 for her cotton, and 
that is only one-third of the products the South supplies 
to her? Yes, Cotton is King, and that American king was 
born in Georgia. Do you know that three-fourths of all the 
sulphur mined in the world comes from the South, and all 
used in the United States comes from Louisiana ? Do you 
know that Louisiana sulphur mines dominate not only the 
sulphur trade of America, but all Europe? Do you know 
that three-fourth of all the coal in the U. S. is in the 
South? Do you know that seven-eighths of all the forest 
area of the United States is in the South? Do you know 
that the only diamond mines out of Africa are in Arkan- 

36 



sas? Do you know that all the phosphate beds of the 
United States are in the South? 

Do you know that Tennessee's coal is better than Penn- 
sylvania's coal ? Do you know that Georgia's marble is 
better than Vermont's marble? Do you know that Texas' 
oil wells produce annually 85,000,000 barrels of oil — far 
more prolific than those of Pennsylvania? Do you know 
that Joseph Watkins of Georgia patented the cotton gin 
one year before Eli Whitney? Do you know that the 
largest cotton warehouse in the world, covering 161 acres 
of land, is in Memphis, Tenn.? Do you know that Geor- 
gia mills are making velvet, and Georgia mills are making 
the thread from which are made those beautiful curtains 
in your Philadelphia homes? Do you know how many 
lumber mills there are in the South? Ask the Manufac- 
turer's Record. I know that the largest saw mill in the 
United States is in Arkansas. Do you know that the 
largest fertilizer plant in the world is in Charleston? Do 
you know that the largest sulphuric acid plant is in Ten- 
nessee? Do you know that lead was first mined in Mis- 
sissippi ? 

Do you know that our corn equals that of Iowa? our 
wheat, that of Illinois ? our oats, that of Ohio ? our apples, 
those of the East? and that our Georgia peach is the best 
in the World? 

Do you know that Dr. Seaman Knapp for whom Ten- 
nessee's Agricultural College is named, was a Louisiana 
man? Do you know that the pioneer of scientific agricul- 
ture was Edmund Ruffin of Virginia? Do you know that 
"The Rural Philosopher" was John Taylor of Virginia? 
Do you know that the first professor of economics and sta- 
tistics was James De Bow of Louisiana? 

I do not believe you know what our Agricultural colleges 
are doing to make the South realize her own greatness. 
One county in Georgia has 41 different kinds of soil, and 
experts are finding out all sorts of things about our South- 
ern soils. Why, we are furnishing food and fibre for the 
world, and there lies beneath our feet yet untold unde- 
veloped wealth. The South has 55 different minerals. 

We have no right to cry hard times in the South, it is 
a disease we have caught from others. Our nearness to 
Panama will make us the center of the world's trade, and 
Panama would not be habitable, would it, but for our Wil- 
liam Gorgas of Alabama? As we have one-half of the 
sea coast of the United States, the South will be the logical 
point for the future Naval displays of the world. 

No, we do not realize our own greatness, because we do 
not know our own country. It is a great country this 
United States of ours. It spans a Continent; it is the 



youngest, yet it is the noblest of all the nations of the 
world. Nature has really seemed partial to the South, 
for while she has given great stretches of land to the 
West much of it is barren waste. While she has given 
great fertility to the North and East half the year, there 
is icy bleakness the remaining half. To the South she has 
given almost perpetual spring; we scarcely know when 
summer ends and winter begins; when winter ends and 
spring begins. Half way between icy bleakness and trop- 
ical heat, partaking of the advantages of both but not in- 
jured by the disadvantages of either. We have soil and 
climate the most wonderful in the world; rainfall abund- 
ant but not in excess. Situated in the latitude of the Holy 
Land we are the home of the orange, the pineapple and the 
banana; the home of the rose, the jasmine and the olean- 
der; the home of the palm and the live oak and the mag- 
nolia; the home of the pomegranate, the apple, and the 
peach; the home of the pecan, the walnut and the chest- 
nut, to say nothing of the watermelon, "the 'possum and 
the 'taters." 

Bathed on the East by the Atlantic Ocean, tempered by 
the warm waters of the Gulf Stream; on the South by the 
tepid waters of the Gulf of Mexico; on the West reaching 
to Mexico and California, the land of flowers; protected on 
the Northwest by the grand old Rockies from Alaska's 
icy blasts. The Mississippi, "The Father of Rivers," 
flowing through our entire length of States; the Appa- 
lachian range on the eastern shore, with its highest peak 
in North Carolina; the Blue Ridge running toward us and 
ending in that geological monstrosity — our Stone Moun- 
tain of Georgia. Nature has worked wonders in our midst 
— the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, the Natural Bridge in 
Virginia, the bottomless Blue Spring in Florida, and the 
Tallulah Falls of Georgia. 

Are we teaching patriotism to our children? Do you 
ask me, "What is patriotism?" My! What magic in the 
word. Love and loyalty to home and country. Love as 
tender as that of a mother for a child; loyalty so unselfish 
as to forget self. Patriotism is the spark that kindles the 
Nation's fire; it is the fountain from which the Nation's 
prosperity flows; it is the helmet that shields the Nation's 
life; it is the shield that guards the Nation's home. 

Patriotism is inborn and if you have it not, you are 
abnormal. (Laughter). It should begin with love of God, 
then love of home, then love of country, then love of State, 
then love of place. America is a Christian country, ours 
by Divine gift. Liberty is God's acknowledgement that 
we are capable of receiving the gift. 

Our government has no model, nothing like it in the 

38 



world. A government of the people, by the people, for 
the people. Benjamin Hill, our "silver-tongued orator" 
said, "It was planned not by human wisdom but by Divine 
guidance. The Romans never dreamed of it; the Greeks 
never could have conceived it; the European mind never 
could have evolved it." Alexander Stephens said that the 
creed of patriotism is "Improvement of the mind, erection 
of schools and temples of learning, interest in the things 
that make for industry, and good will to all men!" 

A patriot is one who saves his country's honor. You 
were patriots. Veterans, for you saved your country's 
honor, and now, God bless you, you have lived to see your 
country's triumph. Everything you fought for has been 
acknowledged by those against whom you fought. Even 
Harriet Beecher Stowe's son. Rev. Charles Stowe, has 
publicly said that there was a rebellion but it w-as the 
North that rebelled against the Constitution: that slavery 
could not have been the unmitigated evil it has been rep- 
resented to be, or one could not account for the faithful- 
ness of the slaves when the men of the South were at the 
front; that there was undoubtedly some good in a civili- 
zation which could produce such a beautiful Christian 
character as "Uncle Tom." 

Veterans, "heroes in grey, with hearts of gold," it was 
harder to live after the war than it was to face the bullets 
on battle fields, wasn't it? 

Yes, the South is triumphant today! She is not only 
the Nation's greatest asset, but she is the world's greatest 
asset. This is the Golden Age — an age of great power, 
buoyant strength, great wealth, and freedom to run an 
unhindered race. But we must remember that there is 
a danger in golden ages. Hannibal lost the fruits of his 
victories by the orange groves and vineyards of Campania. 
Mark Antony lost his by the alluring charms of a Cleo- 
patra. Let us then beware lest greed of gold, selfishness, 
or intemperance engulf us. Let the public weal be as the 
apple of our eye. Let us keep the ballot box pure. Let 
duty ever be our watchword. 

Sail on, thou great and mighty Ship of States, sail on 
over billows and through storms and seas, sail on. 

May balmy breezes and gentle winds waft thee into a 
safe and quiet harbor. May thy keel be strong, thy sails 
pure and white. May duty be thy polar star. Sail on, 
sail on, undaunted by Mexico's threatening waves, by Pan- 
ama's alluring charms, by selfish trusts, by tariff blasts, 
yes, by women's votes, sail on, and thou shalt surely enter 
into Rest and Peace, if we as patriots will only firmly 
stand, and knowing the right dare to maintain it. 

30 



One last word: 

Now, Daughters of the Confederacy, teach, I pray you, 
your children this: 

"Though we were overpowered, we were not degraded, 
Southern laurels have never faded; 
All is not lost unto us, 
Only baseness can undo us. 
Kneeling at your country's altar 
Teach your children not to falter 

Till the right shall rule in Dixie." 



'l![? 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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